A Penn State professor reportedly fell to his death after being pushed off a cliff by two people who may have been in his will. The New York Daily News reports that Rockview State police found Ronald Bettig’s body last Wednesday, and Danelle Geier and George Ishler were taken into custody as suspects. The plot, as strange as it sounds, involved luring Bettig to the edge of a cliff with the promise of marijuana plants for the taking.
What makes the story all the more odd was that Geier and Ishler were actually friends of Bettig, who even lived with Geier. The two were reportedly under the assumption they were included in Bettig’s latest will and planned his death as early as August 10. Police believe that may have been thinking of ways to kill him in the professor’s home and then planned to kill him during a trip to Rhode Island, but plans changed.
While money may have been the ultimate goal for their alleged act, the two suspects seemed to be set off by a comment Bettig made. The professor reportedly critiqued Geier’s parenting style, and the two then staged the scene and made it look as if Bettig fell on his own. Geier is facing charges for murder, aggravated assault, evidence-tampering and conspiracy. Ishler, on the other hand, has been charged with first-and-third-degree murder. It is not known how much Geier and Ishler stood to make in the will, or if they were included at all.